Dynamo Sandbox without Revit - current status?

Warning: Point.ByCoordinates failed.
The type initializer for “Autodesk.LibG.LibGPINVOKE” has caused an exception.

I received this message

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I am following up with the developers on this one :slight_smile: Will get back to you when I have answers!

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Hello @J.Rymer,

We can use the CLI to point to the location of data inside FormIt as a workaround to what should be happening automatically as per this wiki entry: https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/wiki/Dynamo-Command-Line-Interface

Can you try the following steps please and let me know if it works:

  1. Open up your Command Prompt
  2. Find the location of where you unzipped Dynamo Sandbox. e.g. C:\Documents\Dynamo Sandbox Versions\DynamoCoreRuntime_2.4.0
  3. Find the location of your FormIt route directory. e.g. C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FormIt
  4. Type into the command prompt: C:\Documents\Dynamo Sandbox Versions\DynamoCoreRuntime_2.4.0\DynamoCLI.exe -gp "location of FormIt route directory here"

Have a go with this and tell me if it helps :slight_smile: We are in this case using the CLI (Command Line Interface, or Dynamo without UI) to access a special call to point things to the right location!

In theory you should be able to open up the same Dynamo version after this and have Geometry working.

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Theres a few corrections here to use this flag correctly.

  1. This flag only exists on 2.5 and master builds - it won’t work in 2.4
  2. while you can use this flag on the CLI - you can also start DynamoSanbox.exe with it. (which sounds like what you want).

ie DynamoSandbox.exe -gp "pathToFormitASM"

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Is this still true? Is there any way to use geometry inside Dynamo without having one of those programs installed?

Yes.

Dynamo Studio would do this. However you are capped at 1.3. For newer builds there is no solution without the additional programs at this time.

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Hi solamour,

I tried this Method with the Version 2.41 and as @Michael_Kirschner2 described it should just work for the Version 2.5 and Master Builds. Now the question would be which one from all the 2.5xxxx Versions?

Hi Michael

I just wrote a message to @solamour about your explanation. I tried to apply it on a 2.5 version but it didn’t really work. Maybe I am not downloading the correct version. Any Help ? I will really appreciate it.

Hello @J.Rymer,

Any of the Dynamo 2.5 daily builds should work fine with this - For example, the latest of: DynamoCoreRuntime_2.5.0.7186_20191220T1456.zip

Can you please let us know exactly what you are typing into your Terminal / Command Prompt ?

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@solamour it works perfect now ! I think es had to do with the version of the Dynamo I was using. Thank You a lot to you and @Michael_Kirschner2 .

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Brilliant! Glad to hear it :slight_smile:

For the other Colleagues that look for Information on this particular topic I would like to post the solution that had been explained from @solamour and @Michael_Kirschner2 in several parts of the Original Posts and some additional way in order to skip the Terminal / Command Prompt (cmd) work.

  1. Get Installed FormIt. I think it would be the easiest and no that heavy software to have from Autodesk in order to use his Geometry tool and activate the Background 3D Preview in DynamoSandbox.
  2. Download the DynamCoreRuntime_2.5xxxx. As explained from @Michael_Kirschner2 this work around will work for the 2.5xxxx Version and Masterbuild.
  3. Unpack the DynamoCoreRuntime_2.5xxxx with the 7-Zip tool !!!. Try not to use other tool. It didn’t work for me and 7-Zip is free.
  4. Create a Pfad. I normally create the Pfad, Cut it and paste it on my Desktop
  5. As @solamour Explained on his Answer:
  1. As @Michael_Kirschner2 Described:
  1. And here I will explain what I realized and copied from a Post of Changing the Language of Dynamo: Multilingual Dynamo - Dynamo BIM

the Same that has been done here, can be done with this work-around ! in order to have it all the time available and avoid repeating the steps again and again and again ( I think that is the logic behind Coding :grin: :grin: :grin: avoid to repeat boring and tedious Tasks )

  1. I just wrote on the Target: D:\Users\BKU\juanramonrymerdemarc\Desktop\DynamoCoreRuntime_2.5\DynamoSandbox.exe /L “en-US” -gp “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FormIt”
    The Information here should be different in your Computer depending of the location of your files. As You can see I even have two Partitions and it works the same. Here I change the Language of my Dynamo ( From German to English - I like more to use those tools in English :slight_smile:) and also connect the Geometry Interface from Formit ( as Explained from the Colleagues ).

  2. Apply button and Voila !! You just have your DynamoSandbox without Revit full in Action !!!. I think that the Main thing is in order to learn and play around Dynamo without having to use your REVIT ( and when your are @ Work it is also a dangerous thing to be playing around I guess )

I hope this resume can Help the other Colleagues in the Forum. I am also trying to improve my Dynamo Knowledge so when I find a “short cut” I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot @solamour and @Michael_Kirschner2

Kind Regards

Juan.

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I am an engineering manager with basic Python knowledge and wanted to have a basic understanding of Dynamo Visual Programming to have more effective discussions with the BIM team on automating some work.

I have just spent (wasted) 2 days, including IT, to get Sandbox to work and despite Juan’s summary explanation and still getting nowhere and basically cannot get beyond section 2 of the primer.

If the intent of the sandbox version of Dynamo is to get wider interest and adaptation someone is missing the point here. Is there really no simple way way to get Sandbox (including geometry) working ‘out of the box’ without having to resort to cobbling together workarounds that may break at any next update?

Thanks

Hello @Jeroen68.

To get Dynamo Sandbox working, beyond any IT controls your own system may have, you should only need two things:

  1. Downloading a Dynamo Sandbox built from https://dynamobuilds.com/ - refer to You can also refer to this blog post for a little context: A new way to get Dynamo Sandbox - Dynamo BIM
  2. To have access to Geometry in Dynamo, you need to install another piece of Autodesk software from a set list: Revit, Civil 3d, FormIt or Robot Structural Analysis.

Dynamo Sandbox is a developer focused environment (Hence no installer and being shipped as a .ZIP file) :slight_smile: The more mainstream user focused expressions of Dynamo come via our hosts, of which all have Geometry. You can find all our hosts here:
https://dynamobim.org/download/

Would you be able to please explain what you mean by “Break at any next update”? Each version of Dynamo Sandbox should be relatively stable, but if it’s not we can look into why! :raised_hands:

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Hi Sol,

Thanks for your response.

To ‘circumvent’ company IT I tried to get things working on my personal laptop yesterday too but unfortunately with the same result. Having seen the installation of one of the Autodesk packages as the main solution I did install Formit as well as Sandbox but unfortunately still get errors.

The first error upon trying to generate a circle following the primer after ‘installation’ concerns missing dll’s, I have found I can fix that by copying the dll’s out of one of the folders in the Zip (libg_227_0_0) to the same folder as the executable. This worked on both machines.

The second error notes the node requires integers, this error persists even after attaching number input nodes and as far as I can figure from trawling fora is caused by the missing geometry link. The exact same error occurs on both machines as well as after installing Formit. I installed Formit before unpackaging sandbox and used 7zip as one of the fora suggested some of the other unzip packages might cause issues.

I may misunderstand the purpose of the sandbox version but thought it was meant as a standalone intro and means for people to familiarize themselves with visual programming and Autodesk’s approach. Much as I like to tinker I will not be using e.g Revit myself anymore but want to understand the basic workings of Dynamo to be able to better communicate with the modellers and help ‘translate’ some of my experience into a structured program. Offering Dynamo Sandbox standalone seemed like Autodesk was trying to increase the appeal of the wider offering.

The time spent on figuring out how to get things working has at least shown me that Dynamo basically uses Python objects and that will help me some in trying to structure the problems but I think it would be useful if I could go beyond section 2 of the Primer, I get the concept of the programming method but don’t fully understand some of it yet. Practice and trial and error are always good educators.

The fact I can find quite a few discussions on the same topic on several fora spanning several years and referring to different versions of Sandbox suggests this is not a new issue and is regularly recurring, hence my comment on it ‘breaking’ after an update, I have to admit I don’t have first hand experience on this with Dynamo.

I am no IT expert but also no complete ignorant and usually manage to get things working after enough trials and a good curse but I fear I am stuck on this one.

Regards,

Jeroen

Hi @Jeroen68 - which version of sandbox are you using? I think some of your trouble is caused by a bug with the way sandbox searches for the geometry library. (should be fixed in the latest builds)

copying the libG dlls around is sure to lead to more confusion.

The -gp flag is a good way to be sure you are pointing at a specific geometry library. (shown above) you need to create a shortcut and then change the target for that shortcut to include the path.

in any case, my suggestion is to

  1. install Revit 2020 or 2021 (I know a pain) - if you’re on a personal machine get the trial to test the setup out.
  2. get one of the latest daily builds from dynamobuilds.com which should have the bug fixed.

If you don’t want to install Revit, then Formit should work, if it doesn’t you can use the -GP flag to force the location, but you need to point to a folder containing a bunch of dlls called things like AS*22*.dll - I’m not sure where that is in Formit - for Revit, it’s just the Revit folder under program files

some other things to make sure:

  • make sure to unzip with 7zip or unblock the download
  • move those libg dlls back or delete them before testing. (get to a clean download state)
  • the libG_0_0_0 error means Dynamo can’t find a valid geometry library on the machine, so it doesn’t know which version to try to load.
    hopefully that helps
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Hi Michael,

I used version 2.10.0 from https://dynamobim.org/download/ which is supposed to be the latest stable build? Happy to try one of the later daily builds.

I’ll need to try on my personal system tonight and also try and force the location, let you guys know afterward if it does the trick.

Thanks,

Jeroen

yes, please try a 2.12 or 2.11 latest daily.

Hi Michael,

took a bit longer to find the time but just deleted the 2.10 version and downloaded and opened 2.11.0.4327 and, in combination with the earlier installed Formit, this seems to do the trick. Managed to quickly run through section 2.4 of the Primer up to 'adding complexity, without errors and with the desired output appearing. Now back to IT.

Thank you and Sol for your time and might I suggest version 2.10 should not be the default download at the moment?

Should there be any other issue, given that 2.11 is a pre-release, I’ll be back.

Regards,

Jeroen

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Hi @Jeroen68 - We are close to releasing 2.11 which will make that the latest stable version :slight_smile:

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